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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23255572">Why don’t we (Collide the spaces that divide us)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquaresAreNotCircles/pseuds/SquaresAreNotCircles'>SquaresAreNotCircles</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hawaii Five-0 (2010)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>First Kiss, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Pride, Queer Themes, early seasons h50, technically there is a case but calling this a case fic would be hilariously generous</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 16:47:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,538</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23255572</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquaresAreNotCircles/pseuds/SquaresAreNotCircles</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>When they finally catch sight of each other again through the milling crowds, they’re both a little worse for wear. Danny’s left side is covered in glitter and every time he brushes a hand over his hair, more blue and purple confetti rains down. Steve is- Well, Steve is randomly shirtless, which is all things considered not excessively remarkable, but he’s also covered in smudges of colorful paint and has a very nicely printed bloodred lipstick kiss mark on his cheek.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“What did you <em>do</em>?” Danny asks, because it looks like Steve had a lot more fun than he did.</em>
</p>
<p>Or: Steve and Danny accidentally end up in the middle of something entirely new.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>358</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Why don’t we (Collide the spaces that divide us)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is set somewhere in the early seasons of the show (or maybe not, if you think differently!) and the title is from <em>Superposition</em> by Young the Giant. Look at me, writing shockingly short author’s notes for once! I surprise myself daily.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When they finally catch sight of each other again through the milling crowds, they’re both a little worse for wear. Danny’s left side is covered in glitter and every time he brushes a hand over his hair, more blue and purple confetti rains down. Steve is- Well, Steve is randomly shirtless, which is all things considered not excessively remarkable, but he’s also covered in smudges of colorful paint and has a very nicely printed bloodred lipstick kiss mark on his cheek. </p>
<p>“What did you <em>do</em>?” Danny asks, because it looks like Steve had a lot more fun than he did. He just got caught in the blast of other people’s outbursts of joy repeatedly.</p>
<p>Steve glances down at himself. He looks more surprised than embarrassed to find a vital piece of his own wardrobe missing. “I needed a better vantage point.”</p>
<p>“Of what?” Danny eyes him up and down. “Your own chest?” He wets a finger and swipes it over Steve’s abdomen, which makes Steve jump and try to slap his hand away, but Danny is way ahead of him and retreating on his own. The green and blue comes off like he would expect regular body paint to do, so it’s probably no cause for further concern. </p>
<p>“No,” Steve says, finally a little taken aback. It’s probably more to do with Danny taking liberties than the gaps in his own story, but it’s something. “Of the crowd, to see if I could spot our guy.”</p>
<p>Someone just passing behind Steve suddenly turns on their high-heeled boots to leer. “Oh honey, I’ll be your guy all night long,” they say, brushing Steve’s bare shoulder with the trailing end of a bright pink feather boa. </p>
<p>Steve doesn’t twitch this time, but he does put his hands on his belt, which is an evasive maneuver all the same. It only serves to draw additional attention to his chest, which makes him look even more like a male stripper in a way too realistic yet very uninspired cop getup that basically only involves a shiny badge and a gun. “Thanks,” Steve says, pouting a little to show that he’s a serious professional, “but the guy I’m looking for is a suspect in a double homicide.”</p>
<p>Steve’s new friend is neither deterred nor turned off by this. “So dangerous! Are you going to cuff him when you find him? Pat him down very thoroughly?”</p>
<p>Steve has retreated behind his I’m-a-cool-guy-and-nothing-ever-bothers-me mask so far that Danny is about to step in, but it’s rendered unnecessary when a second boa person doubles back and grabs the first one by their arm, dragging them along with an annoyed, “C’mon, Jeffrey.”</p>
<p>Jeffrey lets themselves be dragged, but walks backwards for a few more steps. “Hit me up if you wanna commit some homo-cide tonight!” they yell at Steve, adding a last artistic twirl of their boa before they and their friend are swallowed up by the crowd. </p>
<p>Steve looks at Danny and Danny looks back. There’s a beat where neither of them knows exactly how to follow that up.</p>
<p>“So I’m assuming this is how you got-” Danny twirls a hand at the side of his own face.</p>
<p>Steve remains non-plussed. “Huh?”</p>
<p>“Never mind,” Danny says, even though his finger is itching to be licked again and smudge that lipstick mark away, like a bit of stray Nutella on Grace’s cheek. “Where’s your shirt?”</p>
<p>Steve looks around briefly, like he might locate it somewhere that way. “I don’t know. The drag queens wouldn’t let me on their bus unless I took it off, so I dropped it on the floor somewhere.”</p>
<p>“Of course,” Danny says, because that’s very nearly the craziest thing Steve could possibly have said, which means the universe makes sense again. “You <em>would</em> turn into the main attraction just by virtue of showing up. How didn’t I see that one coming?” </p>
<p>Steve raises his eyebrows, eyes skittering over Danny’s glittery half, like he’s ignoring Danny’s comment and evaluating Danny all of a sudden. “Hey, you ever been to one of these before?”</p>
<p>“No.” That doesn’t seem like enough. Danny is pretty sure there’s a different question Steve is asking, lurking in the spaces between the words, so he tries to answer that one by adding, lamely, “It’s kinda nice.”</p>
<p>“Kinda nice,” Steve echoes, incredulously. He’s got a point. It’s not that it’s wrong, it’s just a very mild way to describe an event that only seems to have one setting, which is completely over the top.</p>
<p>Danny is done being the one that feels awkward. Time to turn the tables. “You?”</p>
<p>“No,” Steve says, as well. Then he proves they’re having the same conversation, because he also answers the unspoken query by adding, “Never had the chance.” </p>
<p>That’s- Well, that’s not even circumspect anymore. It would be almost straightforward, if that weren’t the worst possible word choice in this moment.</p>
<p>Danny also kind of doubts the full truth of it. If he had to venture a guess, he’d say Steve’s reasons are a little more complicated and have a thing or two to do with learned shame and perceptions of self and expectations from the world around you and in your chosen field of profession, which all clash with what you would maybe really want if there were none of this pressure from both society and your own mind. Or maybe that’s just Danny projecting his own issues. Who knows.</p>
<p>Steve is watching him closely. His tongue briefly comes out to wet his bottom lip, mesmerizing. He shrugs a little, one-shouldered, which is also a nice view. “Maybe we should go some time,” he says. “On purpose.”</p>
<p>Their radios crackle before Danny gets a chance to reply. “Boss?” Kono’s voice asks in their ears. “We’ve got him. Chin is reading him his rights, HPD is on the way.”</p>
<p>Just like that, the moment Danny wasn’t even fully aware they were having is gone. Steve brings a hand up to his ear to confirm and reply. He says something about meeting up with Chin and Kono, which is probably a good idea, because they’d actually be doing their job again. </p>
<p>Danny is only half listening, but he follows when Steve starts to move directly against the biggest stream of people. “Don’t you think you should pick up a shirt somewhere first?” he shouts at Steve’s naked back. Steve looks over his shoulder without stopping and with Steve’s eyes on him Danny immediately feels like he doesn’t need to raise his voice as much to be heard, which makes very little sense, because it’s the same happy cacophony all around them as a second earlier. “You know, before you try to command respect from HPD while looking like the most distracting ad for cargo pants ever? You can rock the shirtless look again next time we’re here.”</p>
<p>Steve’s face lights up. Danny is glad he himself is at least wearing clothes, because it makes the way his heart beats out of his chest a little less noticeable. “Yeah, good point,” Steve says, and course corrects enough that they’re probably headed for where they left the Camaro, which will have Steve’s spare change of clothes in the trunk.</p>
<p>Danny, needing to get it all out now that they’re on this unprecedented, barely subtextual roll, grabs Steve by the belt from behind. “Hey, hold up for a sec.”</p>
<p>Steve stops and turns and Danny lets go to allow him to do so. “What?”</p>
<p>“You’ve got-” Danny doesn’t need to reach out, only up. They’re already very close, thrust together in this sea of people being who they are, and when he rubs Steve’s cheek with his thumb, Steve doesn’t try to put up any boundaries or evade the touch in any way.</p>
<p>He sways a little closer still, in fact, seemingly very invested in whatever Danny has to say. “Yeah?”</p>
<p>“It’s, uh-” The lipstick mark is as defeated as it’s going to get without a little soap or a paper towel, but Danny doesn’t drop his hand. He curls it around the side of Steve’s jaw, loosely. He can feel Steve’s pulse in his throat. “It’s gone.”</p>
<p>“Thank you,” Steve says, amused and rumbly, and Danny has no idea if Steve even knows what this was about, but it doesn’t really seem to matter.</p>
<p>“You’re welcome,” he says, because his mother raised him well. Then he kisses Steve, because there are things that his mother never told him about, but that come naturally anyway.</p>
<p>When they separate, Danny can’t keep himself from throwing a quick look around. He shouldn’t have worried; absolutely nobody is paying attention to them. They’re just two men, glittery and confettied and painted and kissing, blending into the crowd like so many people.</p>
<p>Steve kisses him again, and then presses his forehead to Danny’s, keeping him close, and lets out a breath. “This is inappropriate workplace behavior, partner.”</p>
<p>“Our workplace of the day is a pride parade,” Danny says, enjoying Steve’s warm skin, wide shoulders and closeness. “I think we’re okay.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Steve agrees, laughing into the small space between them, “we’re okay.” </p>
<p>Around them, the celebration continues, unceasing, enclosing their tiny bubble in all the colors of the rainbow and then some.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading!! If you liked this, consider maybe leaving a comment if you can! I sincerely hope you’re all healthy, happy and safe today. ❤</p>
<p>I’m on Tumblr as <a href="https://itwoodbeprefect.tumblr.com">itwoodbeprefect</a>, or with my exclusively H50 (and mostly McDanno) sideblog as <a href="https://five-wow.tumblr.com">five-wow</a>.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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